Left-wing Dem hit with hometown church blowback over 30-second ad
Left-wing Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner is spotlighting a local church in an ad seeking to win over voters – but the congregation says it wants nothing to do with...
By Fox News · Fox News
Left-wing Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner is spotlighting a local church in an ad seeking to win over voters – but the congregation says it wants nothing to do with his campaign. Sullivan Harbor Baptist Church, located in Platner’s hometown, appears in a 30-second spot the Platner campaign rolled out earlier in March. The video, titled "The Veteran Who Came Home," features military veterans endorsing Platner’s campaign and is interspersed with shots of the American flag and the white clapboard church. "We as Sullivan Harbor Baptist Church do not endorse this or any candidate," the church wrote on Facebook last week. "We wish that he would remove our photo on his post." The ad comes as Platner, a staunch progressive backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has faced fierce backlash over his since-removed chest tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol and controversial online comments that resurfaced in 2025. He is running to unseat longtime Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in November's midterm elections, but first he faces Gov. Janet Mills in the Democratic primary, in a battle pitting the party's establishment against its far-left flank. MAINE GOV MILLS TAKES BRUTAL SHOT AT JOE BIDEN WHEN PRESSED ON AGE CONCERNS IN SENATE RACE The Platner campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Fox News Digital about whether it would take down the ad or remove the church from campaign materials. Despite the church’s plea, versions of the ad continued to run on Facebook and Instagram, according to a Fox Digital review of the Platner campaign’s digital ad spending. The campaign’s appeals to patriotism and faith come as he attempts to overcome a host of controversies tied to old Reddit posts that reemerged in fall 2025. The Mills campaign, which has the tacit support of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., unveiled its first negative ad last week ripping Platner for making crude remarks in 2013 suggesting women deserved sexual assault. REPUBLICAN SEN SUSAN COLLI…